U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

In the Los Angeles Times, David G. Savage and Timothy M. Phelps argue that President Obama is unlikely to change the ideology of the Supreme Court with the new Republican Senate. ACS President Caroline Fredrickson is quoted in the article.

Noah Feldman examines the newest challenge to the Affordable Care Act before the Supreme Court this term in Bloomberg View.

In the Detroit Free Press, David H. Gans argues against the decision of U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jeffrey Sutton that upheld same-sex marriage bands in four states.

Jessica Eaglin writes at the blog for the Brennan Center for Justice on California’s Proposition 47 and the attempt to slow mass incarceration.

At The Atlantic¸ Matt Ford explains why the Supreme Court may not have to rule on same-sexmarriage.

Robert Barnes reports for The Washington Post on the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to uphold bans on same-sex marriage. According to SCOTUSblog, the ACLU has announced that it will be filing for Supreme Court review right away.

Chris Geidner of Buzzfeed reports that U.S. District Court Judge Ortrie Smith has ruled Missouri’s ban on same-sex marriage to be unconstitutional.

In The Atlantic, Olga Khazan explains why personhood amendments continue to fail throughout the country.

Steven Mazie writes for The Economist about the oral argument for Yates. V. United States, colloquially known as the “fish case.”

In what appears to be the circuit split the U.S. Supreme Court has been waiting for, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld same-sex marriage bans in four states Thursday. While this 2-to-1 ruling surely counts as a loss, it may be exactly what proponents of marriage equality have been waiting for. When asked in September when the Supreme Court might take up marriage, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said to keep an eye on the Sixth Circuit. That we did, and now we’re hoping the high court will determine once and for all that marriage equality is the law of the land.

Writing for the majority, Judge Joe Sutton said, “When the courts do not let the people resolve new social issues like this one, they perpetuate the idea that the heroes in these change events are judges and lawyers. Better in this instance, we think, to allow change through the customary political processes, in which the people, gay and straight alike, become the heroes of their own stories by meeting each other not as adversaries in a court system but as fellow citizens seeking to resolve a new social issue in a fair-minded way.”

Thursday’s ruling was the first time a court at that level has upheld a state marriage ban since the historic victories for marriage equality in 2013 – the striking down of Section Three of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and the dismantling of California’s Prop. 8. Since then, LGBT advocates have ridden a wave of victories in courts at all levels. (A few weeks ago, in what was clearly the exception, not the rule, a federal judge upheld Puerto Rico’s ban on marriage equality.)

It has been apparent for quite some time that the U.S. Supreme Court will decide on marriage equality in the not-so-distant future. Since last year’s historic decisions striking down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and putting an end to California’s Prop. 8, court after court has struck down state marriage bans across the country.

Last month Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the court will not "[duck] the issue" if a marriage equality case comes properly before the court and predicted that would happen by June 2016 at the latest. Last night, Justice Ginsburg was talking marriage equality again. Speaking to an audience in Minnesota, the Associated Press reports Ginsburg said cases pending before the circuit covering Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee would probably play a role in the high court's timing. She said "there will be some urgency" if that appeals court allows same-sex marriage bans to stand. Such a decision would run contrary to a legal trend favoring gay marriage and force the Supreme Court to step in sooner, she predicted.

Now the question is which case or cases will make it to the high court. The Associated Press reports Ginsburg didn't get into the merits of any particular case or any state's gay marriage ban, but she marveled at the "remarkable" shift in public perception of same-sex marriage that she attributes to gays and lesbians being more open about their relationships. Same-sex couples can legally wed in 19 states and the District of Columbia. Bans that have been overturned in some other states continue to make their way through the courts.

It appears the push by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted to suppress voter turnout through thinly veiled measures like voter ID laws and a confusing provisional ballot policy will continue through to Election Day. ACSbloghasdevotedextensivecoverage to Husted's efforts to keep Ohio voters from the polls. The long and short of it is that since this election cycle got in to full swing, Husted (pictured) has striven to ensure that voting will be “fair and genuine” (read: as difficult as possible) for hard-working Ohioans.

It started back in August when Ohio Republicans reduced the early voting period from thirty-five days to eleven, even cutting back on the Sunday before the election – the time when African-American churches have traditionally encouraged parishioners to exercise join in the democratic process. In response, voting rights activists had to gather enough signatures to force an Election Day referendum on the issue. The state’s Republicans then changed course and stopped all early voting in the three days before Election Day, with an exception for members of the military. The Obama campaign challenged that measure in court, and on Oct. 11, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled that the early voting restrictions violated the equal protection clause and restored full early voting for Ohioans.

But, that setback didn’t stop Husted. He cut back early voting in Democratic-leaning cities by limiting early voting hours on weekdays, making it nearly impossible for those with day-jobs from voting either before or after work. Meanwhile, in heavily Republican areas, Republican election officials approved measures to expand early voting hours on nights and weekends. This sparked another public outcry, and instead of expanding ballot access for all, Husted issued a statewide mandate directing all counties to limit early voting times. Republican election officials minced no words when explaining why they wanted to limit voter turnout. In the words of Franklin County (Columbus) GOP Chair Doug Preisse, “I guess I really actually feel we shouldn’t contort the voting process to accommodate the urban [e.g., minority] voter-turnout machine.”